I Jumped
by Cally Starkiller
Summary: Shepard jumped. Kaidan pushed her. Garrus doesn't care. The start of the relationship. The ending of a friendship. The beginning of an old option. The ending of a possibility. The reintroduction of the past.
1. The Start of Everything

**This chapter may seem a little slow.**

**Its just the start of everything.**

**A chapter story.**

**Garrus.**

**Kaidan.**

**Shepard.**

**Inspired by the Gilmore Girls.**

**It'll get better later on I promise.**

**I'll try and stick to this one I swear!**

**I own nothing.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

"So at what point of our relationship are we at? I mean, its all a little mixed up don't you think?" Shepard managed to say at last, looking up at Garrus. Garrus lifted a talon underneath his chin, pondering it for a minute. Shepard waited, feeling the nervousness hit her.

"Well…I've read in human social booklets about relationships and…well I've heard that a 'couple' goes on a few dates to see if they're compatible with each other and to see if they want to ultimately be with that person. But since I already know you, maybe we could just skip that and go right ahead with the 'relationship status'."

That surprised her. Shepard looked up at him curiously, raising an eyebrow, and she could've sworn she felt her heart beat a little bit more excessively at that moment. "You sound like as if you just quoted that from a book."

"Hmm…maybe I did." Garrus said with a casual shrug, trying to wave it off as nothing. "But the thing here Shepard is that, there's something here. Maybe we were just blowing off steam…I don't know. But…I'd rather not think of it that way." Garrus admitted, his gaze settling on the floor. "At one point during the…you know…I thought there was a moment."

Shepard took a deep breathe and went for it. "There was a moment. There was." She confessed, a small smile appearing. Would this ruin their long term friendship? At this point she really didn't care. Just as long Garrus was with her.

"Well…I'm uh glad to hear that." Garrus gave a throaty chuckle and turned back to his calibrations, a turian grin working up on his face. Shepard softly let go of her breath, feeling a large weight lift off her shoulders literally. Ever since that night she couldn't decide where to go after that. Were they still just friends, bed buddies, or something more?

Their previous conversation ran through her head multiple times and she processed it slowly as she asked Rupert to make her some hash browns, leaning against the counter, deep in thought. "Commander…Commander…uh Shepard?" Rupert finally had to snap his fingers in front of her face and Shepard nearly jumped out of her skin, apologizing to him and taking the offered food, going off to sit down at the mess hall tables.

She could hear the whispered words already. 'What's up with the Commander?' 'I heard she was just in the main battery room.' 'Do you think something happened between her and the turian?'

Shepard just ignored the whispered questions and statements, picking at her food, pushing it aside. After a few minutes of deep in thought pondering and problem solving, she decided to just abandon her food and go off to her cabin, gaining a few stares. "Me…and Garrus…Commander Shepard is with Garrus Vakarian." She repeated to herself on the slow crawl up to her room on the elevator, willing her mind to accept the new 'relationship status' as Garrus had called it.

Passing by her dead fish and dying hamster, her gaze travels over to Kaidan's fallen holoframe. Standing there awkwardly, staring intently at the holoframe, she shakes her head slowly. "Good bye Kaidan." She says to herself quietly, allowing a small sad smile and turns to walk off back to the elevator.

She'd make this relationship work with Garrus. No matter what.


	2. The Nervousness

**I know this is short.**

**But I wanted to hurry up and get this out.**

**I worked on this small chapter during my free time in high school.**

**Blah.**

**I PROMISE...**

**That the next chapter will be longer.**

**And will include...**

**well...**

**just read this chapter and you'll know what I'm talking about.**

**And that the next chapter won't take as long since I know EXACTLY what will happen.**

**Everything will fall into place.**

**Yay me.**

**I own nothing.**

**Enjoy.**

**PS: I feel horrible.**

**I forgot to dedicate this to my most bestest friend out there.**

**The one who supports me.**

**And guides me through my writer's block.**

**She helped with the dialogue in this chapter.**

**thanks again: WolverinesDarlin'**

* * *

Shepard sat at her desk, fingers going a mile a minute as she typed furiously on her private terminal, answering old messages sent to her via email. With a long exaggerated sigh she leaned back in her swivel chair and heard a small pop in her back and looked over at the age old dog tags that Liara retrieved for her when she came to visit.

Making a small 'hmm' sound, she began to fully examine her cabin. Going over to her queen sized bed she placed her dog tags over on the bed stand, near the music system. She ran her hand over the old N7 helmet she retrieved down at the Normandy crash site, its numerous scratches and red stripe still there. Passing by her couch and loveseat, she touched the silver metal ball and it expanded and made this loud ringing noise. She remembered that she got it from when she was exploring around on the Hammerhead on a mission to find those scientists.

Going back up to her cluttered desk, she pushed aside holopads and century old printed books and found her frame that showed her all the medals she earned over the years, while in the Alliance. Ignoring the other fallen holoframe, she stared at the tiny eyes of her space hamster, finally relenting and gave it a small carrot, the hamster merely squeaking back in response.

Shepard barely gave it a second glance and walked into her personal private bathroom, its bright lights nearly blinding her as she squinted at her always clean toilet. Last time she left it, there was toilet manual holopads and soaked towels all over for her toilet had gotten…'mad' at her on day. But now it was completely clean. Shepard shuddered at that.

As more random thoughts filled her busy distracted mind, a small knock resounded at her door. With a loud exaggerated groan, Shepard called out as she went to open the door, "Jacob I swear to 'God' if you don't leave me alo- Garrus..."

"Shepard…I…" Garrus' mandibles fluttered as he bowed his head slightly…'did he look scared' Shepard wondered. He said nothing as he walked in and stood in front of the fish tank. After a moment, when nothing happened, Shepard cleared her throat and put her hands behind her back. "Did you need something?"

She remembered one time when she decided to turn on the holoTV and this overly dramatic soap opera was on and the whole entire family in the holoTV show was rich. Filthy rich. The mother had opened the door for her daughter since it was their usual family night dinners every week and immediately she offered her either the sparkly wine or iced green tea with a hint of peppermint. Shepard wished she could offer Garrus something to drink even if it was extravagant and the reason being is that she could at least be doing something besides just standing there like an idiot, waiting for her friend to say something.

Garrus looked at her with his intense blue eyes and nodded a little before putting his own hands behind his back and pacing like he did when he was ranting about the Citadel's security faults or telling a story when he was back in C-Sec.

"Yes." Garrus stopped and looked at her before closing his mouth and pacing again, Shepard waited patiently a smirk forming on her face. Suddenly he stopped and looked at her, squaring off and started.

"Shepard I was wondering if... okay I'm going to start over." Garrus seemed to think and after a moment and started again. "Shepard would you...well I was wondering...I mean thinking. I mean we could... no...that's not. Okay I got this...thing..." Garrus sighed and seemed to shrink a little under Shepard's questioning almost amused gaze.

Shepard shook her head a little and smiled, having a small idea what he could be wanting to say. "What do you want to say? I promise I won't be offended." Shepard hoped that sounded encouraging as she saw Garrus tilt his head a bit.

"I've read that uh humans go out and…hang out?" Garrus said in an almost questioning tone, wondering if he said that correctly. "And that uh they go out to nice places such as restaurants. As impartial I am to human food, I'm pretty certain that one of them serves turian cuisine as well so…" Garrus paused, most likely contemplating what to say next.

Garrus seemed to stand up straight as he finally got his courage back up and cleared his throat again. "Shepard would you like to go out on a date with me?" He rushed out seeming like as if he didn't say it now and fast he would forget what he wanted to say.

Now it was Shepard's turn to look almost uncomfortable, eyes only barely widening as she regained control of herself and opened her mouth to answer, except that nothing came out at first. Embarrassed at her initial response to his question, she took a bit think out what she was going to say first. She knew it wasn't going to be a surprise that he would ask this. I mean, she knew that Garrus was a research freak. If EDI had continued down her long list of extranet sites that Garrus visited before the Collector Mission for their 'special night', she would've had to have disabled EDI's console in order not to hear the rest.

"I would like that." Shepard said at last, a faint smile appearing.

Garrus looked surprised, mandibles fluttering. With a small almost bashful nod, he silently agreed. And with that, Shepard laid a hand on his shoulder to give a small sense of comfort and to let him know that he did well and went back to her swivel chair, kicking her legs back up onto her cluttered desk. Garrus took that as a dismissal and quickly left and he absolutely knew without knowing too much about it, that if he were human…he would be blushing. Shaking his head at the thought, he glanced back at Shepard one last time before entering the elevator.

Then just right when he left, Shepard's eyes nearly popped out of her sockets as the next thought came to mind and out her mouth.

"What the hell am I going to wear?"


	3. The First Official Date

**Hey guys. **

**My writer's block was attempting to murder me again.**

**Fun huh? **

**But I got past it and now I dedicate this chapter to WolverinesDarlin who makes a very small appearance.**

**read. review. roadkill.**

**I own nothing.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

Pacing back and forth, hands shaky, eyes darting every which way…Shepard was nervous. She reopened up her closet again, looking at the Cerberus printed regulation uniforms and the black party dress Kasumi had given her. Why was picking out an outfit today so much harder than every other day? Hell, she didn't even give a crap out how she looked. Slip on clean uniform, don't tie boots, a dab of mascara, a little eyeliner and she was out the door. But now…she found the clothes she wore every day revolting. This one didn't flatter her figure, this one was too dirty, and this one was too uncomfortable. And they were all the same dark depressing colors…black, gray, and more black and gray.

She finished putting on the same outfit that every other crew member wore and stared down at her boots, still untied. With a sigh, she bent down and twisted her fingers around on the shoelaces, making an effort to tie them. She fled into the bathroom and smoothed her simple black hair behind her ears, pulling out her trusty old fashioned eyeliner and started to put on her usual makeup. She took a step back after a moment, examining how she looked. She looked horrible.

Clenching her fists in frustration, she tore off her clothes once more and tried on the next pair, the ones looking like Chakwas' outfit. She fumbled around with the outer dress, noting just how ridiculous it looked on her and took off that outfit as well, trying on the settler looking uniform. As she put on the small vest, she itched at it immediately, the fabric irritating her pale skin. Breathing in and out slowly, she tried to calm herself down…taking off the uniform, she heard a small knock at the door. Shepard quickly put on her N7 sleepwear for cover, kicking aside fallen objects as she went to answer the door.

And low and behold, a pair of clothing was hidden underneath a holopad and she picked up the holopad, reading it carefully…

_Commander Shepard,_

_I heard about your date tonight. Since I know you don't like wearing anything extravagant, I explored my closet and found something you might like. _

_-Kelly Chambers_

She read it over three times, wondering how in hell Kelly found out Garrus asked her out in such a short period of time and shook her head, reminding herself to thank Kelly later. She peered down at the clothes, picking the items up and laying them out on the bed.

It was simple pair of jeans, small distressed marks on the knees and it was a designer label from way back in the 21st century…American Eagle she thinks. With a small smile, she slipped on the pair of jeans, hugging her hips and muscular legs. She looked down to see a t-shirt accompanying it, black in color and it looked like exactly what she wore during her boot camp until they designed the new regulation downtime clothes.

Curious as to how Kelly was able to track down century old clothing, she shook her head, knowing that Kelly could do practically anything except keep a rumor to herself. Happy and content with her new pair of clothes, she shoved her feet into her combat boots, leaving them untied.

She was ready.

* * *

Shepard had called everyone off the ship for shore leave, knowing that they most desperately needed it after the stress of fixing the Normandy and having to call loved ones to notify of their status. Which reminded her…the crew members who had died during the Collector Mission…she knew she would have to type up emails to the families, more stress pounding down on her shoulders. But when she saw Garrus walk toward her in his not so casual clothes, wearing his beat up armor instead, a nervous gaunt to his walk as he neared her position…all thoughts fled from her head.

"Hey. Shepard…" Garrus trailed off, that almost 'I'm cool enough and have enough confidence that fill up the whole Citadel Lake' was gone right when he said her name. With a small grin, she gestured for him to jump into the Kodiak with her, rapping on the door for the pilot to take off right when Garrus took his seat across from her.

The rest of the ride down to the Zakera Ward was taken in silence, Shepard resting her chin on her hand, leaning forward deep in thought. Garrus was practically shaking, mandibles fluttering a few times, blue eyes blinking repeatedly. Now he was starting to wish he had brought those damn holopad notes. The Kodiak made its stop and Shepard jumped out and onto the platform below, waiting a moment for Garrus to jump out beside her. As soon as the two were out and about, walking past the yelling Sergeant and the cowering recruits, the appalled racist calling turian and the stressed out security women, they came up to their normal security post.

But something was different here. The usual annoying turian was no longer there and was instead replaced with a young woman, no older than 20. She had shoulder length brown hair and her eyes nearly popped out of her skull as she looked up and noticed Commander Shepard and Garrus Vakarian. She then seemed to have remembered something and stopped the scanners from scanning them, not saying the apologetic words, 'Sorry for the inconvenience ma'am' and instead waved them by. Garrus exhaled a sigh of relief and Shepard nodded a little at the new security checkpoint lady, a small grin present.

As the two were walking out Captain Bailey noticed that Shepard's hands were not clenched and the turian was calm as ever and sighed, content with the fact that he didn't have to deal with an upset Commander, and walked over to the young woman. "Looks like you've got the job Marie."

Garrus heard a squeal of joy from behind him and glanced over his shoulder, the twenty year old human bouncing on her feet and Captain Bailey giving her a gentle pat on the back. Garrus had a feeling he would have to get used to this human as she has replaced the throbbing headache that the other turian usually gave him.

As soon as the two friends were outside of the C-Sec headquarters they walked around aimlessly, Garrus glancing down at Shepard every few minutes. After another ten minutes of more awkward silence, Shepard broke it. "Garrus…you do know where we're eating right?"

"Well yeah…I was just waiting until you wanted to go off and eat or something…" Garrus said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. So it looks like Garrus was still somewhat thinking he was under her Command, even under these vastly different circumstances.

Shepard quipped back with her stomach growling, pointing one small finger to her stomach as if to prove a point. "Oh…right…" Garrus numbly scratched the side of his head, tilting it a little and sped his pace up. "Well knowing you I figured this would be the best place to take you…"

As soon as they rounded the corner Shepard's gasp of surprise and delight was like music to his ears. He had done well. The bright neon light signs, the dancing area, and the 'never ending buffet of pizza and turian cuisine' were enough to get Shepard dashing inside, all nervousness and discomfort gone. Garrus' soft chuckle made her stop in her tracks and wait politely for him, a wide grin present on her face. The two clasped hands and entered, their first official date awaiting.


	4. About Horizon

"No."

"Come on…"

"No."

"Shepard, Anderson invited us and we got to-"

"No."

"…is no the only word you know?"

"No…shit." Garrus covered up his chuckle and Shepard mentally face palmed herself.

"So are we going?" Garrus asked.

"Maybe. I don't know." Her voice was non-committed to the idea of spending time in a frivolous party. Especially dealing with people she didn't know.

"You're not doing anything else better. All you do is just sit up here and act like you're filling out reports and sending emails and feeding your dead fish. Let's just go. Make an appearance at least."

"Why are you wanting to go? It's not like turians enjoy military parties that have political wanna-be's and civvies in them as well." Shepard pointed out to Garrus, rolling her eyes.

"Actually we do enjoy them. Part of our culture. So we going or not?" Garrus rapped his talons on the wall, leaning against it. Shepard no longer thought of the multiple ways to physically hurt a turian when she sees Garrus in a vulnerable position. That cruel self-preservation military part of her disappeared, but that doesn't mean she still doesn't know how to do it. She remembered the 'I just want to have good times' turian who was bothering an asari dancer at Afterlife.

"Oh god no." Shepard rejected the idea again. No way was she slipping herself into Kasumi's party dress or her Cerberus formal dress uniform, medals on. Her medals…she snuck a glance at the case that held all her medals collected over the years when she was in the Alliance. Technically, she didn't need to wear them since she wasn't in the Alliance anymore. Politely, she could in order to make an even nicer and proper appearance when she arrived.

Garrus didn't accept that answer. He merely stood there, blocking her way to the bathroom.

"Move it Garrus. My bladder is going to explode."

"Nice." Garrus chuckled. Shepard crossed her arms. "I'll move if you say yes."

"You never did give me a straight up answer about wanting to go to this thing." Shepard rose a challenging eyebrow at him, throwing him a 'ha!' look.

"And you never did finish that breakfast meal I tried making you this morning." Garrus fired back.

Shepard opened her mouth. Then closed it. He got her. …"It was burnt." She offered weakly.

"I worked all morning on that meal for you!" Garrus feigned offense, hoping that this new tactic would work.

Shepard stayed silent, sighing loudly. "Fine!" She threw her arms up in exasperation, moving past him toward her bathroom. Garrus' mandibles fluttered, the full impact of him winning this argument evident on his face. Then he really started to question whether or not his cooking skills were up to snuff.

* * *

"Why do I always have to dress up every time we go out?" Shepard complained from over by her bed, staring down her limited supply of clothes.

"You didn't dress up for our first…date." Garrus had no idea what to call their first outing together. Was it really called a date?

"Oh…right." Garrus could hear her soft patter echoing, fully knowing that Shepard was pacing. Why was the Commander always so nervous about her outer appearance? Or any other human for that matter…

"Shepard, I'm sure that whatever you wear will be fine." Garrus assured her, staring at his reflection in the mirror in Shepard's bathroom. His battered up painted faded armor, he noticed, gave him an air of intimidation. It automatically made people back off. Just like Shepard's N7 armor. Maybe she could just wear her armor. Just like him…

Right before he stepped out and could tell her his suggestion, Shepard had disappeared in the elevator without saying a quick 'I'll be right back'. He merely shrugged, deciding to occupy his time by taking a quick tour of her cabin. He never really did take a close look at all her collected knick-knacks.

He stepped up to her fish tank, its blue lighting reflecting off of his armor. He rapped his talons on the glass, noting that there was no sign that forbid it. One solitary fish came out from hiding, practically pressing its body eagerly against the glass. Garrus tilted his head, the fish copying him. He backed off involuntarily, the fish doing the same.

Garrus shook his head, walking over to her desk, holopads cluttering his work space. He also noted on how irresponsible and disorganized it gave off to his Commander's appearance. If a C-Sec inspection officer came by he would probably rate it low and attach a note about it to her superior officer. However, they were not in C-Sec and technically Shepard had no superior officer, save the Illusive Man but he had no idea what was going on there. But still, Garrus felt inclined to organize it somewhat and started stacking the holopads in small neat piles.

Garrus was slightly proud of his job accomplished and noticed how one of her holoframes had fallen over. He reached over to pick it back up but didn't set it back down. He slowly examined it, the holoimage transiting from a standard picture of Kaidan Alenko and one of him and her from back on the old Normandy. Whether this was intentional, he'll never know.

Garrus tried and brushed it off as nothing, looking over at the various medals Shepard had received. She was quite the war hero whether she would admit it openly or not. And the scars evident on her pale skin were proof that she was.

_"And what's this one from?" Garrus poked at her shoulder, a thin line only barely noticeable. _

_"Slight knife stab. Or at least, a poorly attempted one. I was scrapping with Finch, one of the older guys in the gang." Shepard explained, trying hard to look down at it. _

_"And this other one?" Garrus pointed at her other shoulder, a wound that would only originate from a deep gash or stab from years back he noticed. _

_"That one is from Sam. A rather nicely executed stab if you ask me." Shepard said casually, already knowing that Garrus knew the story behind that one. _

_"Oh." _

_"What about you? Any interesting scars you'd like to share?" Shepard actually looked genuinely interested._

_"No. Well this one but you already know how I got that one." Garrus was referring to his face, the vivid image of the gunship gunning him down reappearing. _

_He shut his eyes. _

He opened his eyes. He disallowed the reminiscing of memories to continue, passing by the chattering hamster who always seemed to freak out every time it saw him and back toward Shepard's bed. He saw Shepard's old dog tags, framed by Liara T'Soni, that one flighty asari from the old Normandy. But he remembered Shepard saying that she had changed from that sweet innocent scientist to a distant information hoarding broker. He couldn't imagine that.

Garrus circled around her bed again, going to her smaller desk that her old weather-beaten N7 helmet sat upon. He picked it up clumsily, barely holding onto it as he examined it closely. That cost him. He dropped it suddenly, inwardly gasping, and quickly bent down to save it from its fall. God forbid that Shepard might've stepped in at that moment and clobber him with her helmet.

He set it back down in its original spot, making sure that it lay exactly in its same position as before. Shaking his head slightly Garrus walked away from the desk and back up toward her larger desk, off where all her ship collectibles were stacked at. He squinted up at them, seeing how larger her collection had gotten since last time he was up here. In fact, she even had a Reaper ship.

Garrus soon grew tired of waiting, estimating that it's been a good twenty minutes since Shepard had left without a word. Before he was about to walk out and try to find her, he saw that her email browser was still up on her personal terminal. When he walked over to shut it off he saw one open email and it looked as if it had been read multiple times. His curiosity getting the better of him, Garrus sat down in her swivel chair which had been dented multiple times, and started skimming the contents.

The subject title was 'About Horizon…'

* * *

**Don't worry. I haven't forgotten about this story. **

**I found the chapter when using my school laptop. **

**I haven't gotten on it in awhile so yeah. **

**There you go. **

**I own nothing.**

**Hope you enjoyed.**

**Read. Review. Roadkill.**


	5. Truth Is

**Author's Note: Wow. I'm back. Finally. And I got my muse back for the most part. I got a few ideas for this story and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with them. Bye Writer's Block. **

**Thanks for any reviews. **

**And sorry for the short chapter, this was all I could up with at the moment and I should be able to make longer ones later on. **

* * *

**Garrus.**

"_I'll set the alarm on your terminal." Garrus offered. He shuffled over to her desk and pushed over a small stack of holopads in order to actually see her terminal. He pushed a few buttons and then...there. _

"_Whoa. __Total d__éjà vu." Shepard commented from her side of the bed. Garrus lifted his head up to acknowledge and waited for her to continue. "The alarm. I had a dream and you set like thirty alarms. Which is not a bad way to wake me up by the way and uh...we were back on the old Normandy. And I rushed out of my room and you came up to me." He heard her laugh for a second. "Then you talked to my stomach."_

"_Was there an alien in your stomach or something?" Garrus mused, a little confused by this dream of hers. _

"_Technically...yes. I was pregnant." Shepard said slowly. She almost sounded unsure. _

"_Mine?" Garrus' mandibles clicked once as he tried to imagine her that way. _

"_Of course yours. I'd never let Kaidan get me pregnant." She coughed awkwardly and shifted a little in her bed._

"_Was there...something between us at that point?" Garrus inquired as he made his way toward the bed._

"_I think so." She said quietly. It sounded like as if she was struggling to remember. _

"_Dream go beyond that?" He almost sounded wishful. Where did that come from?_

"_Oh well and then you ki-" She stopped. "Er. No. That was it." _

"_Right." Garrus walked over to his side of the bed, careful not to encroach on her territory. They were still friends and he wasn't so sure she would appreciate if he shifted too much in his sleep so he set a pillow in between them. "You know. It'd probably be a bad idea to have turian babies. I never heard of a human trying it before though..." _

"_Of course. It was a silly little dream anyways." She didn't sound so sure. But all the while Garrus had this small smile present on his face and quickly fell asleep as soon as he hit the bed. _

...

"Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you…you just gotta find the ones who are worth suffering for." Shepard quoted, dark blue eyes burning with emotion as she unconsciously scanned the party area for hostiles. There were none. Garrus followed behind, silently wondering if those were her own words or someone else's.

"Old human phrase?" Garrus guessed, walking behind her but not beside her. He was still feeling sick to his stomach after reading Kaidan Alenko's email. It was filled with opened ended promises, subtle apologies, questions left unanswered. It didn't sit well with him. He wasn't too sure about their relationship anymore.

"Something like that." Shepard said quietly, feeling rather out of place. Garrus and Shepard were both wearing their armor while everybody else was wearing their formal dress wear or military casual wear. But then again the two would've stood out either way. "…I don't know. I don't think we should be here…." A sigh. "We should just leave."

"No." Garrus finally locked away his indecision about their relationship and stood beside her, knowing that he'll ask her about the email later on when people weren't present. "We're already here. And Anderson will call you later if he doesn't see you attend so let's just…stay."

Shepard looked up at him and gave a timid smile but Garrus could barely return it. Not that she could tell the difference anyways. The two started walking forward in unison, joining the hustle and bustle of the Alliance cocktail party.

Instantly the chatter among the small groups rose, Shepard's name being mentioned once or twice. "Shepard." Anderson rested his hand on her armored shoulder, catching her attention. "Glad you could make it. But I'm afraid this might the last event we'll be inviting you to."

"I know I should concerned about that point but...I'm kind of glad." Shepard awkwardly placed a hand on her side. Garrus just stood there and observed the various types of people who attended the party. There weren't that many types it seemed.

"I heard about the trial. About how you're going to have to show back up on Earth someday." The word Earth made Shepard flinch ever so slightly. And only Garrus noticed.

"I know. Don't worry. I'll show up. After I take care of a few things." She quickly said, mind elsewhere. Garrus decided to bring the letter another time. Maybe when they're back on the Normandy. Give her a little space. He had no idea what was on her mind but she needed some time to think it over.

"Enjoy the party Shepard. Don't let this bother you for now." Anderson gave her one final nod and strode off in the crowds of people.

"Come on Shepard. I think we're in need of some drinks." He suggested and led her to the small bar across the room.

As the two leaned against the wall, watching people drift across to one another to talk, Shepard rested her head on his shoulder. And he let her.


End file.
